Prevention, Early Detection, and Treatment of Sepsis

Sepsis is a relatively common condition with an estimated 1.7 million adults in the United States suffering from it each year, resulting in death for approximately 270,000 individuals. It is the body’s extreme response to an infection and is considered a life-threatening medical emergency. Sepsis happens when a pre-existing infection triggers a chain reaction throughout a patient's body

Infections that lead to sepsis most often start in the lung, urinary tract, skin, or gastrointestinal tract, and can occur in any care setting. Without timely treatment, sepsis can rapidly lead to tissue damage, organ failure, and death.

During this webinar, leaders from ECRI and infection prevention, surgery and infectious diseases shared different perspectives on the early detection, prevention, and treatment of sepsis.

Learning Objectives

During this webinar, our experts will:

1. Defined sepsis
2. Explained why sepsis was identified as a Top 10 Patient Safety Concern by ECRI
3. Discussed the different techniques for early identification of patients with sepsis
4. Discussed strategies for preventing sepsis
5. Related steps for implementation of sepsis care in the hospital
6. Examine Sepsis Stewardship:

• Describe how to optimize approach to selecting appropriate empiric antimicrobial therapy in a timely manner
• Explain how to integrate diagnostic stewardship to reduce unnecessary antimicrobial therapy and reduce unintended consequences

All faculty, planning members, and reviewers involved in June 7, 2023 live webinar Prevention, Early Detection and Treatment of Sepsis have disclosed in writing that they do not have any relevant financial relationships.

View Recording

Speakers

Gregory Beilman, MD

Professor of Surgery, University of Minnesota
Dr. Greg Beilman currently serves as the Owen H. and Sarah Davidson Wangensteen Chair of Surgical Research at the University of Minnesota and serves as Associate Dean of DoD Research and Partnerships. Greg has an active translational research program funded by the Department of Defense, other federal institutions, and industry with the major thrust of this program being evaluation of the metabolic response to hemorrhagic shock and injury. Greg has worked for nearly two decades in the area of severe acute and chronic pancreatitis and surgical therapy for these conditions. Greg is a retired Colonel in the Army Reserves and has deployed five times, serving during a recent deployment as the CENTCOM Joint Theater Trauma Director in Iraq and Afghanistan. Greg has significant experience in global health efforts, with his experience in the Army and decade of patient care and research efforts in Uganda.  

Edward Septimus, MD, FIDSA, FACP, SHEA

Dr. Ed Septimus is board certified in both internal medicine and infectious diseases. He was VP Research and Infectious Diseases, HCA Healthcare until 2018. Prior to HCA, he was the Medical Director of Infectious Diseases and Occupational Health for Memorial Hermann Healthcare System. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and was on the IDSA Antimicrobial Resistance Committee, the SHEA Antimicrobial Stewardship Committee, and the IDSA Quality Measurement Committee. He is now on the IDSA Sepsis Task Force. Dr. Septimus was chair of the Healthcare Safety Advisory Committee for the Texas Department of State Health Services from 2018-2021. He was the first recipient of the IDSA Watanakunakorn Clinician Award and was awarded the John S Dunn Sr. Outstanding Teacher Award. He was co-chair of the NQF Patient Safety Steering Committee until end of 2021 and is now vice chair of the NQF Consensus Standards Approval Committee.

Margaret Miller, MT (ASCP) M, CIC, FAPIC

Infection Preventionist, ECRI
Prior to joining ECRI in 2020, Margaret was the sepsis project manager at The Hospital and Health System Association of Pennsylvania and a subject matter expert for HAPevolve for infection prevention, COVID-19 care in acute and post-acute facilities, sepsis, and highly infectious diseases. She is also a consultant for the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) and has worked to re-open international non-healthcare businesses during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

Moderator

James Davis, MSN, RN, CCRN-K, CIC, HEM, FAPIC

Manager Infection Prevention and Control Services, ECRI
Jim Davis has 25-plus years of nursing experience spanning long-term care, adult critical care, clinical decision support, education, nurse management, and infection prevention. In his current role, he serves as Manager of Infection Prevention Control at ECRI, managing local and national response and multidisciplinary teams and delivering actionable plans to mitigate or eliminate threats related to infectious pathogens. He has designed version 2 of the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority’s long-term care healthcare acquired infection reporting system and analytics programs and has provided educational programs about infection control topics for risk management groups and patient safety organizations.